Also in the USA this week are Current 93 and Christoph Heemann of HNAS - they're both in New York City from Thursday - Saturday at Tonic. Don't bother ordering tickets now, it's been sold out for weeks.

WHERE DID THE LINES GO???
If your browser supports style sheets, you may have noticed that there's no more underlines on links in various sections of Brainwashed. Pretty spiffy, huh? I know it's not new technology but it looks nicer...

POLE 2
Thank god the man behind the Pole guise, Stephan Betke, doesn't take his time releasing material like so many talented musicians. "CD1", Pole's debut album after a duo of sought-after 12"s, was released a little more than six months ago, to critical acclaim. And this new Ep lives up to the promises made by "CD1"... and more! Still there are the skittering chirps and pops, the far-reaching echoes, and the subliminal melodies. But the new ingredient "2" features is BASS, and lots of it. There isn't anything resembling a breakbeat, steady rhythm, or repetitive bassline on this Ep, just a single slowly modulating bass throb guiding the way. Deep as the Mariana Trench, it fills your room, sinking into your ear like wet cotton and expanding in your brain. The bass is a constant in every track, allowing the glitches that have become Pole's trademark to boil above and beneath it, and to stretch along it's length in dub echo bliss. While all of the tracks have some sort of tie to reggae and dub (a skanking melody here, a melodica buried in echo there), Pole's reverbed madness seems a lot closer to the stillness and stark-white cold of Antarctica than to the sweaty heat of Kingston, Jamaica. Projects with James Plotkin and Four Tet in the works, and hopes of another album of new material, this looks like it will be The Year Of The Pole. Now this is how good a prolific artist ought to be (Are you listening, Mr. Barlow?)! - Jason Olariu, guest contributor

SILVERMANDALAS
Silvermandalas, the newest solo effort from the legendary keyboardist for the Legendary Pink Dots, while not what I expected it to be, is a pleasant surprise nonetheless. The cover of the CD, which depicts a photo of trees dismantled and reassembled through the lens of a kaleidescope, is an interesting compliment to the album, a musical melange of styles. Seven pieces (or "mandalas") recorded between 1996 and 1998 comprise Silvermandalas, each one radically different from the other. The first mandala begins with buzzing insect-like sounds along with low, bassy thunderings. About halfway through the track, a snare is added, providing an unexpected rhythmic element to what at first listen might strike a listener as just another ambient drone piece. The third mandala features more of this synthetic insect sound, this time complimented by prettier, mellower, perhaps even melancholy tones; a minimal, somber track that includes other "natural" sounds such as bird twitterings and leaf rustlings. Other mandalas range further in elements from filgrees of keyboard swirls to Eastern-influenced flutes and rhythms to lower, bass-driven oscillations. The biggest surprise (particularly to fans of the Pink Dots) is without a doubt the seventh mandala. Fabulous high-tech beats, nearly dancy, dominate this track which is strongly suggestive of the Pink Dots) is without a doubt the seventh mandala. Fabulous high-tech beats, nearly dancy, dominate this track which is strongly suggestive of IDM bands such as Autechre, and like Silvermandalas itself, is in general entirely too short, leaving the listener longing for more. - Jessica Tibbits

TUESDAY
King Biscuit Time - `Sings' Nelly Foggits Blues in `Me & The Pharoahs' 12"/CDEP (Astralwerks, US)
John McEntire/Various - Reach The Rock CD/LP [soundtrack to the new John Hughes film featuring McEntire's score and new tracks from Tortoise, Polvo, The Sea & Cake and Bundy Brown] (Hefty, US/Europe)
Vidna Obmana/Asmus Tietchens - Motives for Recycling 2xCD (Soleilmoon, US)
Nick Parkin - Island of Dust CD (Soleilmoon, US)
Steve Reich - Reich Remixed CD [mixes by Coldcut, Howie B, Andrea Parker, Tranquility Bass, Mantronik, Ken Ishii, DJ Spooky and more] (Nonesuch/Atlantic, US/Canada)
Squarepusher - Budakahn Mindphone CDEP (Warp/nothing/Caroline, US)
:wumpscut: - Totmacher 2xCDEP (Metropolis, US)

WEDNESDAY
Orbital - Middle of Nowhere CD (Polydor, Japan)

For a more comprehensive release schedule stretching far into the future, please check out the NEW RELEASES brought to you by Greg and Feedback Monitor.

With that in mind, I am proud to be joining the indie ranks tomorrow with the first release from Brainwashed Recordings and to all the people who thought they were so cool cos they worked for Geffen who got free tickets, promos and rubbed elbows with the 'big shots': I refer you back to Nelson Muntz. - Jon Whitney

Thanks, I thought we'd give it a shot last week and it seems to be a hit!